Readers have been in touch over their heat pump ordeals. Some have given outlandish quotes. Others have been told that their house is too old, or that the technology will not keep them warm enough in this climate. Allow me to relate my parallel experience in France. Our dilapidated stone farmhouse is a good test case of claims and counter-claims of heat pumps. If they can do a passable job during a French winter in this draughty pre-Revolutionary relic they can work in almost any house anywhere